Licorice has been known as herbal medicine from long ago, and currently it is mainly used as raw material of a sweetener for food, medicines, quasi-drugs, etc. Among these, glycyrrhizin and glycyrrhetinic acid, a water extract of licorice, have excellent medicinal effects such as anti-inflammatory effect, antiulcer effect, and antiallergic effect, and are widely used in e.g. food and drink, medicines, and cosmetics.
Oil-soluble licorice extract, which is obtained by extracting licorice with an organic solvent such as ethanol and ethyl acetate, It is known to contain a lot of flavonoids other than the above-mentioned glycyrrhizin and glycyrrhetinic acid. It is disclosed that this oil-soluble licorice extract has useful effects such as an antioxidant effect (See, Patent Literature 1), an oxidation preventing effect (See, Patent Literature 2), a whitening effect (See, Patent Literatures 3 and 4), and an ultraviolet absorbing effect (See, Patent Literature 5).
However, it has not been known that the oil-soluble licorice extract has at least one effect selected from an inhibitory effect on hyaluronidase activity, an inhibitory effect on hexosaminidase release, an inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation, and an inhibitory effect on phospholipase A2 activity, and is useful for, for example, contact dermatitis (rash), psoriasis, pemphigus vulgaris, and other various skin diseases associated with chapped skin.    Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 58-217583    Patent Literature 2: JP-A No. 59-46210    Patent Literature 3: JP-A No. 01-149706    Patent Literature 4: JP-A No. 01-311011    Patent Literature 5: JP-A No. 01-157909